These comments are beyond me.
Yet he still excelled against all the other young footballers who are quick, great marks, great kicks etc. He will be playing against a bunch of these guys over the next few years.
A focus on contested ball this year has helped him work within his limitations.
But then again, I'm an Internet poster and Bevo is a premiership coach so draw your own conclusions.
Let me clarify. I was extremely worried that his lack of speed and disposal quality wouldn't help him.
From this season, he has should he can get the ball at AFL level and his disposal has improved.
He may still not make it as an A grader but he looked miles from it last year. He also suffered in comparison with Libba.
It's better to die on our feet than live on our knees.
The Swans will probably try to put pressure on Wallis and Libba but I can,t see it working too well , not for the full 4 quarters , if Sydney go into the game with the mindset to tag 4 or 5 players they will find themselves drawn into a contest they don,t really want to be a part of
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I had a little chuckle at this, myself.
I'm sure they just neglected to leave out the quotes where representatives from Sydney came out and said "we're really looking forward to keeping the dogs in their kennel", or "we're going to keep them begging for for forward opportunities" or................OK, I'll fnish up and let myself out.
I think it's a real challenge for suporters to keep a level head in terms of expectation when it comes to high draft picks these days.
There is a consensus ingrained amongst social media users, traditional media readers and watchers that is born from unrealistic expectation on young players due to the exposure the game receives.
Wallis is as good a chance of having a slump in the second half of the year, as he is picking up the pieces again at the start of next year. The reality is he's a kid, and still has a lot to learn as the game evolves on a yearly basis.
His true test will come when the coach pushes him to start using the ball more creatively. He's demonstrated he knows how to get it, and after doing that on a consistent basis he'll need to show he can do that consistently across a season, copping a tag while trying to be more adventurous with how he uses it.
I'm happy with his progress, and I'm not assigning any level of future expectation on him right now.
In fairness he didn't just not look A-Grade he was truly horrid across several games preseason and last year. Consistently coughed up the ball and seemingly never in the right place. Can't blame the fairly strong negativity from many people despite the fact it was (i hindsight) way to early to formulate an opinion. It's been an extraordinairy turnaround this year to last. Whatever clicked he just looks a new player. Good luck to him and hope he plays 300 great games with us!
Well in the case of preseason this year and last, he was probably completely knackered each and every time he touched the ball. Preseason games can't be trusted with respect to form, as you don't know what each player is doing on a weekly basis in terms of physical work away from games.
I didn't see enough of him at Willy last year, apart from what I read and saw on the box. All I'll say is that from the games I saw there was sufficient evidence to not write the kid off, like some people did, especially since he was only 18 at the time.
It's still too early to formulate an opinion on him IMO. He's the second or third midfield grinder we have in our side behind Boyd, Cross and Liberatore (though at this rate he'll take over the latter two shortly), so he's not going to come under much scrutiny for a while, especially when opposition midfields know the receiver he's giving it to isn't likely to hurt them.
His big test will come when Boyd and Cross retire, and a defensive midfielder decides to mark him on a regular basis.
I have started to notice how often both Wallis and Libba are in the area of the ball together and how often the ball goes from one to the other. I recall reading that was the case in school and TAC footy that they were the dynamic duo but it has already begun to appear in their AFL careers as well. I like it, i think they are both natural footballers and work really well together naturally.
My life is a very complicated drinking game.
FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.